Knicks keep weary Boston Celtics sliding

Friday

Jan 25, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Things don't look very promising for the Celtics right now, but losing at home to the Knicks makes them seem even worse. The Knicks handed the Celtics their fifth consecutive defeat, 89-86, Thursday night at the Garden. New York also snapped a 13-game losing streak in Boston, including playoffs.

By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Things don't look very promising for the Celtics right now, but losing at home to the Knicks makes them seem even worse.

The Knicks handed the Celtics their fifth consecutive defeat, 89-86, Thursday night at the Garden. New York also snapped a 13-game losing streak in Boston, including playoffs.

The last time the Knicks won here — way back on Nov. 24, 2006, Celtics fans were so upset, they chanted, “Fire Doc, Fire Doc,” in the closing minutes. Getting blown out at home, 101-77, to New York and coach Isiah Thomas was too much for the Garden faithful to accept.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers survived that night and an 18-game losing streak later in the season and coached the Celtics to an 18-game winning streak and the NBA championship the following season. Celtics fans are up in arms again, but this time with the players, not necessarily the coach.

“It's not time to obviously panic,” Kevin Garnett said. “We definitely don't point fingers around here.”

Rajon Rondo had 23 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to post his fourth triple-double of the season and the 27th of his career, including playoffs. Once again, playing on national television (TNT) motivated the Celtics point guard, but he said the loss wiped out the significance of his feat.

“It's kind of irrelevant,” he said. “Say if you score 40 or 50 points, if you lose, you lose. All that matters is Ws and Ls.”

Paul Pierce scored 22 points, but didn't have a field goal in the second half. Garnett grabbed 12 rebounds, but scored only 8 points. Jason Terry was only 1 of 6 for two points off the bench.

It took him 28 shots, but Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points to extend his streak of 20 or more point to 27 games, two shy of Richie Guerin's franchise record. Amare Stoudemire had 15 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.

Anthony didn't try to confront Garnett after the game like he did after the Celtics won, 102-96, in New York on Jan. 7. That night, Anthony made only 6 of 26 shots and Garnett unnerved him by giving him an earful throughout the game. Anthony's antics after the game drew a one-game suspension.

The Celtics have been up and down of late, losing four in a row, then winning six straight before losing five in a row for the first time since Feb. 15-22 of last season.

The Celtics visit Atlanta Friday. The last time they visited Atlanta on Jan. 5 was also on the second night of back-to-back nights and they won, 89-87. They had lost their previous five road games on the second night of back-to-back nights.

J.R. Smith, who had made only 1 of 12 shots to that point, sank a 12-footer to stretch New York's lead to 82-72 with 6:46 left. Rondo's 19-footer capped a 10-2 run that pulled Boston within, 84-82.

With the Knicks leading, 86-84, Avery Bradley missed a 3-pointer and on the next possession, Garnett missed a 16-footer. Then Smith drained a trey to stretch the lead to 89-84 with 1:11 left.

But somehow the Celtics had one more chance. They called a timeout with 13.3 seconds left and needed a 3-pointer to force overtime, but Pierce couldn't handle a Rondo pass and lost the ball out of bounds with 7.1 seconds left.

“The play was broken up,” Pierce said, “and I tried to flash to the ball. I really didn't get a good hand on it. Then J.R. (Smith) made a good stab at the ball and it resulted in a turnover.”

It was the second time the Celtics lost the ball out of bounds in the final 1:06.

“Just down the stretch we just had poor execution,” Pierce said. “When we need buckets when the game is tight, we can't turn the ball over and that's what we did down the stretch. Our defense was good enough to win.”

The Celtics took a 66-65 lead late in the third on Green's 3-pointer, but the Knicks scored the final seven points of the quarter to take a 72-66 lead. The Celtics fell to 0-8 in home games they trailed entering the fourth.

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